There were some very strong signals over the weekend that the United States might have been seriously considering, or even imminently prepared to launch, a series of limited strikes against Syria, most likely cruise missiles.
Such an attack would have been in response to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s strongly suspected use of chemical weapons in a recent attack that is thought to have killed hundreds of civilians.
It also would have been the first direct U.S. military involvement in the Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people over two-plus years of violence.
Here, laid out in very simple bulletpoints, are the cases for and against limited U.S. cruise missile or air strikes against Syria, an issue that has been debated for over a year now in Washington and apparently within the White House itself.
